Florence and Michael won’t have another chance to wreak havoc in the Atlantic Basin. The names of these two storms, which caused extensive fatalities and damage from Florida north to Virginia last year, have been retired by the World Meteorological Organization’s Region IV Hurricane Committee.

Coordinating the activities of Members related to the space-based observing system component of the WMO Integrated Global Observing System to ensure sustained and interoperable satellite observations and to promote their applications.

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Setting technical standards, quality control procedures and guidance for the use of meteorological instruments and observation methods in order to promote development documentation and worldwide standardization.

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WMO hosted a meeting of UN Oceans, as part of a week of ocean related events to focus attention on ocean science, observations and safety. UN-Oceans is the UN inter-agency coordination mechanism for ocean matters .

The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) is a co-sponsored programme which regularly assesses the status of global climate observations and produces guidance for its improvement. It is co-sponsored by the...

As atmospheric CO 2 continues to increase, more and more CO 2 enters the ocean, which reduces pH (pH is a measure of acidity, the lower the pH, the more acidic the liquid) in a process referred to as ocean acidification. Declines in surface ocean pH due to ocean acidification are already detectable and accelerating.

Switzerland has announced a major contribution to an international initiative to strengthen early warning systems in vulnerable low-income countries to support climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. The announcement of 9 million Swiss francs in new funding came at the United Nations climate change conference in Katowice, Poland (COP24).

An initiative to strengthen multi-hazard early warning systems in the Caribbean was launched on November 20 during the dry season Caribbean Climate Forum (CariCOF) meeting in Barbados. The Caribbean region is highly exposed to high-impact hydrometeorological hazards such as hurricanes and tropical storms, causing floods, landslides and storm surge. In 2017, Hurricane Irma caused massive destruction in Barbuda resulting in the subsequent full evacuation of the island while Hurricane Maria caused devastation Dominica. Barbados suffered from flooding as a result of Tropical Storm Kirk in...